Honestly there's nothing to update yet - Joey hasn't given an update, Leyonhjelm isn't in the Senate anymore; the LNP in theory supports legal online poker (its officially in their QLD platform not sure about nationally but from what ive heard Morrison supports it in theory but it isn't a priority to them) and they should have the numbers to pass it if the conservatives hold together on the crossbench, which they should - I know Bernardi and One Nation support it but i'm not sure where Lambie stands, if she opposes it it'd be a 38-38 split if Centre Alliance/Labor/Green opposite it but afaik Labor and Greens aren't opposed either they just don't seem to have a position on it.

I'll try and call Joey sometime soonish he just hasn't been responding to me so I have no idea what's going on there; I assume he's busy as he hasn't been very active on social media at all. Wish I could give a 'better' update but I don't have anything to update - i'll try and get in touch with Joey and if I can't we can figure out what to do from there. The crossbench still holds the balance of power so we need it to be a priority to them to trade the vote for it for something the government actually cares about if the LNP isn't going to make it a priority (they still might be; I don't know - last I heard Joey was confident it'd happen this term if the LNP was reelected)

Thanks for the update! Im sure joey is busy too! Hope to hear from him when we can!

Just chatted with someone else in the LNP who i'm friends with who supports our cause that Joey's been in contact with and he's still working towards our cause post election and some things have been happening behind the scenes. Not sure what I can say publicly and I don't know all of the details only some of them, i'll let Joey speak for himself when he has time as I haven't been able to get ahold of him personally but he is still doing good work on behalf of online poker just behind the scenes at the moment.

There's a new communications minister which should be a positive for us but obv things will take time as online poker isn't exactly the governments top priority, we should know more in upcoming months about whether we're going to see progress on legislation.

http://http://www.mygc.com.au/gold-c...er-tour-event/

Would be nice if Poker could get some exposure on the back of this announcement.

could be good or bad for poker if israel folau won the main event.

You ever seen how hard a government worker works?

All that optimisim was just complete ass steam. I would bet nothing was ever gonna happen, the ideas were hardly if at at all discussed in a formal setting.

Gold Coast Poker community's actually quite large considering we haven't had a real casino room ever (I live on the Gold Coast) - Mitch Caton's built a huge player base at Seagulls through WPTLeague (Wpt's pub poker offshoot) and there's been a thriving home game community here for a long time too, we have a specific poker room opening in August too.

I think the numbers are going to be surprisingly good for WPT GC considering the overall state of poker in Australia.

@elendil you're wrong that nothing was discussed in any formal setting but okay, and I don't know what I can say about what's happened since the election but it's incorrect to think that the fight for online poker is still not happening behind the scenes - that said, communication has obviously been poor.

A few emails and a chat over coffee with an ineffectve senetor doesnt cut it IMO. If ths was discussed in a formal public setting, do you mind provid

ing the receipts?
Surely there are new gaming formats/varients which need to be approved by the regulator, has any company ever approacjed the hegulayor about a poker licence?

Glad somebody finally said it. AOPA have permanently lost all credibility by failing to lift a finger during the election campaign. Joey may have a genuine love of poker but he actively harmed efforts to have online poker reintroduced by funneling grassroots momentum to AOPA and then doing nothing with it.

You can scroll back through this thread and see his last post where he actively discouraged people from making political noise until his signal, which never came. That is unforgivable

Now the fight is over and we never even got off the stool.

Well then why are we wasting our time? Anyone with half a brain will work out that online poker will never ever be a priority for any sitting government.

If it needs to be a priority then it will never happen, it's the logical conclusion.

Sick of all the excuses, "Senator has resigned, there is an election coming, it's not a priority" There will always be a reason, so over it.

Oh, I suppose we need to put our dancing shoes back in the cupboard and let the dust settle?

So after 6 months of silence and multiple attempts to contact this bloke supposedly in charge of this surge in government and absolutely not to his own political gain ALL with out any result mind you. Youre gonna sit there with a straight face and say you know something we all dont? Like he is doing some back room, under the table dodgy deal with affectivley the wrong people in the way, way to make us not look like what the rest of the nations perceptions of us already is, "Denegerate Gamblers". At least im glad of one thing Joey didn't think to ask for a paid subscription service to the AOPA to use our money for lobbying efforts, otherwise im sure he would have people knocking down his front door.

I'll add my thoughts to this.

It's an unacceptably long time for us to wait for someone claiming to act as our representative just to give us some form of update. I'm not sold on this 'we can't be told about the backroom maneuvering' bull****. I'm also not buying he's too busy to post here. I am very busy but still manage to check this board once a month or so.

Joey, it's time to post some form of update. Either that or step down from your inactive AOPA position. All that good work you did at the outset is being undone by your improper handling of this situation.

I defended Joey for a long time... but this is hard to defend now.

He took action at the start when we needed a unified voice. His actions meant other poker players didn't need to take action. He was our voice.

Now his silence is our silence. He funneled our momentum at the start. That funnel has now taken us down a path of inaction and silence.

For what its worth I agree his lack of an update for this long as head of the AOPA is unacceptable, an update of 'its being negotiated in backroom deals' or 'no negotiations are taking place' etc would be fine if he's busy or not at liberty to discuss ongoing negotiations.

The thing I heard about meetings having taken place since the election was not from Joey himself, but from another interested party (an active LNP insider who I am friends with). I have no way to independently verify the claims as it's second hand info. I've been busy this year but have made multiple attempts to contact Joey and he seems to be unreachable. If anyone who knows him IRL posts here please find a way to reach out and ask him to make a post or at least get in contact with me or someone else who can make an update.

For what it's worth Bernardi looks to be going after this term and with Leyonhjelm gone and Bernardi wanting 'small government' credentials to brag about and being a vote the LNP needs that would be where i'd recommend we start, but I want to hear something from Joey first about where the process currently stands; and if he isn't actively working on anything it might be time for someone else to take over lobbying efforts as the 'wait and sort it out in backroom deals' approach clearly has not yielded any success and the Lib Dems no longer have a Senator.

Come on, the guy's a volunteer, you're not paying him for his service here, are you?

Well, we did ship him 4k or so via a gofundme for "out of pocket expenses". But apart from that, yes, he's a volunteer, I guess.

An update would be nice.

I'm not sure what difference that makes.

He put himself forward as our leader/representative. He was doing a good job and then he disappears without even a one liner. I'd say people here have been more than patient.

What do you suggest we just hang around until he finds a couple of minutes to communicate something?

Maybe you could contact him? Do you have his email or phone number?

Well swoop did promise to CALL HIM three or four times but that obviously never happened because lol poker players trying to organise something. Pick up the phone? Nah send him another FB message bro. He did somehow manage to brag about buying a house from gambling winnings though. Very helpful

I was asked to leave this thread awhile back and I obliged but I’m back partly because I’m spending a lot of time in Australia now and no stars while I’m there pisses me off

Also partly because many of the criticisms I laid out about the process back then have come to pass. What a **** show half assed attempt .... I knew Joey was no good, so obvious. Poker is never coming back to Australia

Holding Joey responsible for the decisions of the Australian political system is completely absurd.

If you want him to respond to posts on a message board, it seems obvious to me that the best thing to do is to contact him and let him know about them.

Go **** yourself

Am speaking with him now will update shortly after attempting to contact him via a ton of means regularly for past few wks I finally got ahold of him will make a post in a sec

Ok Joey just gave me a bunch of information. Much of it is positive. I can't share it all now. He apologised to the Aus poker community and 2p2 for being silent for so long, he's been busy but said thats not excuse and it won't happen again. Obviously some of the hate is well deserved, but it's just a lack of communication, he's still actively working towards our cause and anyone who knows me knows I have decent judgement you'll just have to trust me on that, I promise i'll say so if I think he isn't the right man to lead the AOPA forward at any point in the future.

He gave me a lot of detailed information rest assured his lobbying efforts have been active and ongoing he's just been travelling and very busy 9 of the last 10 weeks.

Joey is going to make a post in the next 48 hours. He's also going to update the AOPA mailing list; or if he doesn't have time to i'll do it on his behalf (I don't have access to it now but can arrange that now I have a way to be in regular contact with him).

After speaking with Joey today i'm definitely going to take a more active role with this effort. I promise to keep 2p2 updated with anything I can share as we go through the process, but not everything will be able to be public information. I'll ensure both 2p2 and the AOPA mailing list get at least semi regular updates.

IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL YET or anything but there have been very promising developments. Joey will share the information that is able to be made public shortly with this thread. He's not going to disappear again.

Just gotta have some faith boys and girls, thanks swoop.

Thanks for the update Swoop, much appreciated. I can honestly say alot of the warranted hate/negaivity was probabaly purely frustration over the lack of communication. I am happy to help the cause also, if there is anything i can help with in the online updates/promotion of AOPA to 2p2/Facebook/Social DM me and happy to work something out and share the workload. Dont want this to slip throuhg the cracks again . Cheers.

Cheers will let you know if anything needs doing after chatting w Joey after his public update